In this post i give you some examples of fake playlists. There are lots out there so i can’t cover them all. But by putting out examples i hope people could learn to see the signs themselves. All of these have the signs i mentioned in part 1.
My goal with this post is to raise awareness to artists and music lovers to understand why this will hurt your music career. The less musicians who fall for this. The harder we will do it for these scammers.
Since i am a metal musician, i will give examples of playlists i've discovered in that genre. The signs can be applied to evaluate any playlist.
Fake accounts - Playlists (Metal version):
Former account, Hisoka
Same playlists but different account name.
Will give you a price list with increased amount the higher placement. The curator in this case doesn't even care about who are at the top of the list. Just pay him..
This is a way to milk more money out of you. I don't know about you but i always shuffle a playlist.
Signs of fake:
Three playlists with a total of 65 k followers. Has 11 followers on his account (when writing this)
Mostly underground bands with a variety of production quality
Leaves contact info in the description
Low social media engagement
Paid placement
You'll often find the same bands in several of these fake playlist. This can mean they offer bundles or the fake playlist network target and dm the bands from several playlists.
Will give you a detailed price list and refers to ”us” as a promotion company.
Signs of fake:
Two playlists with a total of 60 k followers. Only 58 followers on account (when writing this)..
Social media not strong regarding engagement or following.
Mostly underground bands. Production quality varies.
Leaves contact in description
Paid placement
Metalunited - Metalunitedradar and Core workout - They just changed their name to Metalunited releases.
Signs of fake:
Detailed pricelist (even got sales)
Low social media engagement
Leaves contact in description
Only underground bands
Paid placement
One account follower with over 14 k playlist followers.
Charges the most amount of money (high as $500 a month!) and he use bundles.
Signs of fake:
Detailed pricelist (uses bundles)
No social media
Leaves contact in description
Only underground bands
Paid placement
With the above knowledge and example. You should be able to figure out that these metal playlists are fake as well:
And many more!
BONUS:
This may come as a surprise. It is a smart way. Fake with some polish. They go with the agency disguise and claim to promote your track.
I actually believed this and have worked with them. I specifically asked how they work and promote my track (as i wasn't just after Spotify streams). They claimed to have a network and work with mailing lists. Charging $75 for a week resulted in..
You guessed it! Only Spotify streams. Nothing more. I never heard anything from "them" during the whole week. No updates. It was one week, one playlist
(Metal hubspot). 5k streams. Done.
Why am i claiming them to be fake?
First of all. An agency doesn't just put your track on their playlist and thats it. As i explained. My goal for the campaign was an overall recognition for my track i would expect a close communication, a blog post, maybe a social media appearance etc.
But let's look at them closer and break it down.
Social media - About 1 k followers on instagram with an engagement of under 10 likes. Unless they boosted a post. But in that case you will see a lot of fishy accounts liking the post.
On facebook they got about 47K !!! And they have an average of half a like on their posts! Unless they cheaply boosted a post and all these fake accounts like it.
It's so ridiculous. I kind of get upset just writing this blog post.
Website - Not looking very professional and got that classic pop-up window telling you about people who bought their products. They also like to show how their Metal hubspot playlist appear on bigger bands discovered on list. Which doesn't mean that they are good at promotion. They are good at buying bots. Lots.
The only thing they do is Spotify "promotion" which means putting you in their playlist and/or some of their friends fake playlist.
Hilarious picture at their "about us - Our team" section. A nice picture of some guys infront of a whiteboard. I found the same picture on google within 1 minute.
It's a stock image..
Let's stop and think a little. If they are so good at what they are doing. If they get you infront of a real audience. If nothing is fishy at all about them. Why not take pride and show themselves? Like all business do! For example: Here is our CEO. Here is our team-members. We've been in the business for xxx years. Come on, don't be naive.
This review below tells you what happens. Be careful with your stats and analytics. That's your individual, unique tools to target YOUR audience. Having these tools can give you a lot better results on your own, for a lot less in investment.
It's a marathon, not a sprint!
Niklas
Aristic
@aristicmusic